Accel Partners Raises $155M for New India Venture Fund

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Accel Partners, which has backed global Internet majors like Facebook and Groupon, has raised a new $155 million venture capital fund that will invest in seed and early-stage investments in India. Accel India III is nearly two-and-a-half times its predecessor, Accel India Venture Fund II, which raised $60 million three years ago. With the inception of the new fund, the assets under management of Accel India will reach $235 million across its three early-stage funds.

“The fund has attracted top-tier institutional investors from North America, Europe and Asia, and will focus on opportunities in Internet services, digital media, SaaS and enterprise technologies, mobile, healthcare and education, and other high-growth sectors,” Accel said in a statement.

The new fund comes as Indian e-commerce space has gained momentum and one of Accel’s early bets on the sector, Flipkart, is attracting interests from global investment majors. Accel has invested in nearly half-a-dozen e-commerce companies such as Babyoye, Exclusively.in, Flipkart, Letsbuy and Myntra. Its other India investments include Cnergyis, enStage, Deeksha (Ace), HealthcareMagic, Kaatizone, MuSigma, Perfint, QwikCilver, Sconce, Vinculum and Virident. Accel currently has 34 portfolio companies in India.

Accel, which has $8 billion under management globally, had set up India shop in 2008 after it merged Bangalore-based early-stage investment firm Erasmic Venture Fund with itself. Erasmic already had a $20 million fund in place and post-merger with Accel, it raised another $60 million India fund. Accel Partners has 11 investment professionals based in India, led by the four Partners – Mahendran Balachandran, Shekhar Kirani, Subrata Mitra and Prashanth Prakash.

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